Mosquito repellent to virtual inverter, innovations awarded at I3

By IANS
Monday, November 22, 2010

NEW DELHI - For 48-year-old Anjan Mukherjee, a herbal products businessman in Kolkata, coming to the capital and telling entrepreneurs and corporate bigwigs from all over the country about his self-invented herbal mosquito repellent was a dream come true.

“I invented it while doing experiments at home on herbs that repel mosquitoes. What also kept me involved was the fact that a lot of mosquito repellent fluids available in the market have toxic chemicals, Mukherjee told IANS.

“I never thought I would ever be able to tell anyone about this invention,” he added.

Mukherjee was among the 50 innovators from different parts of the country gathered Monday at the 2nd India Innovation Initiative (I3) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus here.

Organised jointly by Agilent Technologies, the science and technology ministry, and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the initiative saw innovations battling it out for the top five prizes.

The 50 entries were selected from nearly 1,000 entries from all over the country.

Some of the major attractions at the forum were innovations such as a moisture-sensitive automatic irrigation system, a virtual inverter, and a 1.5 kg disaster management kit, among others.

The top five innovators selected by the jury will get help from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and Young Innovators (YI) to transform their innovation into active commercial ventures.

“India has a large talent base. I3 is a platform for innovative minds to convert viable ideas into reality,” said Parmeet Ahuja, president and country general manager of Agilent Technologies.